The Representation of Speech

Abstract

This chapter considers Jane Austen’s subtle use of different ways of representing speech in her fiction, and the effects on the interpretation of characters and events. Bray outlines the speech and thought presentation model first developed by Leech and Short (Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose. Harlow: Longman, 1981), and its subsequent revisions. He discusses the frequent shifts between categories on the speech presentation scale in passages from Austen’s novels, as well as her use of free indirect speech within quotations. Contrary to most critical opinion, he argues that this style is not only used for ironic effect in Austen’s fiction. The chapter finishes by considering how the speech of two of Austen’s less voluble heroines, Fanny Price in Mansfield Park and Anne Elliot in Persuasion, is represented.

Shimazaki, H. 2015. Free Indirect Speech in the Work of Jane Austen: The Previously Unappreciated Extent and Complexity of Austen’s Free Indirect Speech and Its Development from the Eighteenth-Century Fiction. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Southampton.Google Scholar